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Topic: egg grill vs weber (Read 2759 times)

What are some of the pros/cons of cooking with a ceramic egg vs a weber grill (with or without a Kettle kit)? Portability is a concern of mine since I live in an apartment but even more so is cooking up a tasty pie.

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This is perhaps nonresponsive to your question, but I would totally recommend the Blacksone oven over either a Weber or a ceramic grill, if tasty pizza is your aim. The Blackstone is not very versatile though. But for pizza and maybe steaks, it works really well. And its small enough for an apartment balcony. I have an egg and they are too big and heavy for an apartment, IMO.

I have an egg and it makes wonderfull pizza. I have seen people do that with weber's also though. When looking up all the information the egg just appeared a little more versatile to me. In a way it gets somewhat close to a wood fired oven with the ceramic.

So I would definatly buy it again, Weber is not a bad grill though and you should be very able to produce simular results.

I have a ceramic grill and I had the pizza kettle. When my setup was on with the kettle attachment I liked the pizza better off the weber. I recently sold my kettle pizza to put towards the Blackstone. The ceramic is a good pizza cooker also.

The weber takes a lot of fuel if you want more than 2 pies.

Either will get you decent results but at least for me, I couldn't get consistent results for what I was looking for. I'm hoping the Blackstone will get me the results I want.

I guess my main goal is to be able to produce WFO quality pies using caputo flour, and unfortunately I don't have a balcony..yet.

tinroofrusted - Do you own a blackstone? How do you like it?

Yes, I bought a Blackstone back in June or so. I do love it. It has really improved the pizzas I make; I used to make them in the oven, but I don't think I've made a single pizza in the oven (other than focaccia) since I got the Blackstone.

I love my ceramic cooker as well, but more for the other things it can do, like really slow cooking, smoking, all kinds of BBQ and grilling, etc. It will slow cook a piece of pork for 18 hours on one load of charcoal. It's very versatile. The Blackstone is not versatile. It's more or less dedicated to pizza, although members have reported good results with steaks. But it's pretty much of a design dedicated to making pizza. It does that really well though. Several members have made some really nice looking pizzas in the Blackstone. A true wood fired oven is even better, but it's a much bigger commitment as far as space, cost, learning how to use it well, preheating, etc. The Blackstone gives you the essentials (a really hot, relatively well balanced fire) at a very modest cost. As you will see if you read the Blackstone thread there are some issues with the oven arriving with broken or bent parts, defective gas valves, etc. But if you get a good one, they are pretty great. And very modestly priced compared to a WFO.

I'm using a WFO, a gas grill and a Big Green Egg mini to make pizza. Each has it's own virtues, and all are good, but for different reasons. If using a gas grill, I'd personally not use a pizza stone - instead we grill the crust directly on the grates. Makes for a fantastic crisp crust. The Big Green Egg mini is perfect if you have an RV, or a balcony in an apartment - small and very versatile - however, expensive, and only good for cooking for two. We like to use a mini stone on the egg since it has a cover and bakes quite well. We can also add wood chips if we want a smoky flavor.

chasenpse, I have cooked on ceramic style ( Big Steel Keg) a Weber gas with an infrared broiler, and now a Blackstone. Sorry to say but IMHO, not even close Blackstone is a 10 and the Weber grill is a 4 and the ceramic style was a 3. The BS is made for pizza, so it rotates the bottom stone so it does not overheat, and has a top stone to get some browning on the top. While many of us have modified the BS, it isn't necessary to do any mods to get a great pizza. I use my ceramic for smoking, and some grilling. To use it for pizza is a PITA. First, all the heat is from below, and it is so hot, it would burn the bottom very quickly. So you load the lump charcoal, then add a heat difuser, then add the grate and a pizza stone, and give it plenty of time to warm up, 45 minutes is probably about right, then put on the pie. Even with all those steps, there is no heat coming from above the pizza, so you don't get the browning of the top unless you bake it for a long time. As a plus, you can get some good flavor from the wood chips. The Weber Gas solves some of those problems, since you can set the gas around medium so you don't burn the bottom, and you can fire up the infrared burner which provides top heat. The problems are that if you open the grill hood all the way, you lose all the built up heat, so I would open it up just a few inches, to check and turn, and since the IR burner is in the back, you have to turn it frequently otherwise the back top got burned before the front got color. The BS is just in a diff league. Warmup time is 15 to 20 minutes, you don't need to add heat difusers, or do any special prep, the stone rotates the pizza so you don't have to do that, and there is a slot in the front so you don't have to open it to check to see if it is done. If you can swing it, I would definitely go with the BS. I haven't tried a Weber with the kettle kit, but some of the pizza's look pretty good.

As for "the heat from above", the pizza stone you use in the egg (and probably also the weber) should enable heat to go along the sides of the stone. This will make the "compartment" above the pizza hot and will make sure your top will cook / brown nicely. If you look for pictures of pizza's on the big green egg, you will see what I mean. Also, the ceramic top should help with making the top compartiment hot enough to easily brown your pizza. However, if you look at the picture PZ posted with the small big green egg, you see there is not a lot of room between the pizza stone and the egg. This will make it more difficult for heat to go up and you might get there what Barry discribes. You can get the same in the bigger egg's if you get a pizza stone for the wrong size. (people reporting this also as one of the reasons for having their gasket burned)

In response to the original question, I have 3 yrs experience with a Bubba/Big Steel/Broil King Keg. They are the same size as a BGE large. The Keg is a lightweight, doublewall steel construction, with ceramic wool insulation. The heat retention is very similar to the BGE. The significant difference is that the Keg is a light, portable unit with wheels and capable of being receiver hitch mounted for vehicle transport to a park or party event. Any of the komado style grills, including the steel Keg line, are very fuel efficient.

My assessment of the BGE/Keg type grill/smokers is that they are very versatile for the home bbq/grilling enthusiast. They will do an excellent job on modest party sized quantities of meats, such as, pork butt, brisket, ribs, rib roasts, turkey, chicken, steaks, etc. . As to their use for NP pizza or any other style, I would go with a Blackstone. My Blackstone is just too easy to do a 900+ bake. I'm not a NP pizza enthusiast, but of the NY, cracker, and NP styles of pizza I've tried, it's worked well. It's probably suitable for deep dish styles, but I haven't tried them.

They eliminated one of the big holes on the steel of the kettle pizza, a much needed improvement IMO. For not quite $500 for everything, it has me contemplating buying a Weber OTG, after selling all of my Webers but one, the WSM.

I have a size Small Big Green Egg that I take camping and tailgating. It is more than adequate size to crank out food. 12" pizzas, 5lb chickens, are great on it. A 5qt Lodge Double Dutch Oven and 12" pao style carbon steel wok fits perfectly. I have no problems cooking for crowds, and it is nice for a small one or two person cook. Here is a shot of it in action in GA.

They eliminated one of the big holes on the deck of the steel kettle pizza, a much needed improvement IMO. For not quite $500 for everything, it has me contemplating buying a Weber OTG, after selling all of my Webers but one, the WSM.

I have a size Small Big Green Egg that I take camping and tailgating. It is more than adequate size to crank out food. 12" pizzas, 5lb chickens, are great on it. A 5qt Lodge Double Dutch Oven and 12" pao style carbon steel wok fits perfectly. I have no problems cooking for crowds, and it is nice for a small one or two person cook. Here is a shot of it in action in GA.

I would look at the pizza made from the Blackstone on this site over the websites vids. Looks like it does an impressive job.

I actually just sold my kettle attachment and I had a steel lid for it. Not the one on the website. The kettle attachment can turn out some good pizza but at least for me it was to inconsistent. Maybe it was user error. I thought I would like the Blackstone better. I will find out next week.

I'm not sure if it matters from propane to charcoal/wood chucks when your cooking that high of temps.

Thanks, will try to find a post on here of it in action. Just seems like a gas powered Pizzazz.

In regards to wood vs propane, IMO it does matter. Same goes for anything grilled.

"Friends don't let friends, grill with gas."

I get the gas thing. It does matter for grilling or smoking. I haven't had a gas grill in a long time. Which reminds me I better look and see if I have a tank. I probably have to buy a new propane tank. I use my weber or ceramic cooker for most of my cooking.

My wife was shocked when I told her I wanted a propane fired pizza oven.

I just don't think the wood at those high of temps which I want to achieve imparts wood flavored, as it's a clean burning fire. When I cooked on my kettle attachment at the highest temps I could I didn't notice wood flavor. Now if I cook lower temp in my ceramic with wood chunks added I can taste some wood flavor.I won't be grilling with the Blackstone.

What is the setup for pizzas on your ceramic cooker?Even at high temps, wood does impart a slight flavor, not like adding wood chunks during a grill or smoke session. I get desensitized of the slight flavor by hovering over the grill during a cook. Guests pick it up. And you can really taste it when the leftover slices are reheated.

Here is the setup that works for me on the BGE. Spider, 16" round carbon steel wok with sand added, grate, copper tees, baking steel. The round shape of the wok pushes the flame/heat around the edges as opposed to a flat surface getting blasted. Raising the deck higher in the dome helps cook the top by radiation of the preheated ceramic dome and convection.

I get wood flavor in my ceramic for pizza more. I never took my ceramic up to 800 to 900 degrees to see if it imparts any flavor. But for pizza I don't mind no smoke flavor. It's the kettle I don't notice when I'm burning at 800 to 900 degrees

I use the two tier adjustable sing rack. I put the pizza on the top rack. Sometimes direct or I use a small deflector on the main rack. I use to use the double d rack which is similar to the spider but its easier just using the two tier rack.

I do think I get desensitized. Even my ribs taste more smokey the next day.

jsperk, not to overdo it, but the video on the Blackstone site is very weak. Under home ovens, there are a number of threads on the BS with photos of diff pizzas, and they look far better than the BS site video.

jsperk, not to overdo it, but the video on the Blackstone site is very weak. Under home ovens, there are a number of threads on the BS with photos of diff pizzas, and they look far better than the BS site video.

That's what I meant up above, check out the stuff on this site over the Blackstone site.

Would cooking with a wood fire at 800+ degrees even make a difference at that temp? I feel at that point it's burning so hot that there would be no benefit, plus the cook time of my hypothetical pizzas would be in the 1-2 minute range. Is that even long enough to impart any flavor from the wood?

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If Tetris has taught me anything, itís that errors pile up and accomplishments disappear.